Port Chester United Hospital near Greenwich rented
PORT CHESTER, N.Y. — After years of delays, demolition has begun on the site of the old United Hospital in Port Chester, where a massive new construction project is scheduled to take place.
The redevelopment of the old hospital site, which closed in 2005, is part of a wave of new construction in Port Chester that has Greenwich residents and elected officials concerned about the traffic impact. Airborne pollutants and the spread of environmental pollution.
Construction at the United Hospital site off Boston Post Road near the Interstate 287 interchange will create 775 multifamily rental apartments, 90 independent living apartments and 110 assisted living and memory care units at 406 Boston Post Road. Plans also call for a 120-room hotel and 18,000 square feet of retail space.
Large construction vehicles demolished the old hospital and several outbuildings beginning this month.
“They started repair work in the winter,” said Richard Shea, a spokesman for the developers, Rose Associates and Bedrock Real Estate Partners. “They’re starting to demolish the structures now, and that will continue for several months.”
A multi-phase construction project will follow the demolition, although a firm timeline is still in the works, Shea said.
“It’s consistent and on schedule,” Shea added.
Rose Associates and BedRock Real Estate Partners are developing the 15-acre site after the previous developer, Starwood Capital Group, failed to advance its construction plan.
The current developers acquired the property in 2019.
The abandoned hospital building has become an eyesore in the community. It is located in a prominent section of the village next to the popular shopping destination. A 14-year-old boy died after falling at the site in 2017.
Approvals for the project came last October.
Construction will be monitored, said Greg Hamilton, director of the Sustainable Port Chester Alliance, a watchdog group. His organization hired an environmental lawyer to monitor the demolition and environmental issues.
“It raises a lot of concerns, because it’s obviously a brownfield site. 100 years of medical waste,” Hamilton said. His organization is looking to ensure that New York State environmental regulators conduct air sampling on a regular basis and at various locations around the site. He added, “The demolition represents a threat to this corner of the village.”
The hospital’s location is about one mile from the Connecticut state line and the Byram neighborhood of Greenwich.
Regarding the scope of the project, Hamilton said there are community concerns.
“It’s growing the village by 10 percent, and its population. That’s huge. It’s going to bring a lot of traffic to the Post Road. We’re very concerned about the traffic,” he said.
Construction will be monitored, said Tom Kisner, a Port Chester civic leader and board president of the Sustainable Port Chester Alliance.
“We’re monitoring it,” said Kesner, who is also president of the Port Chester-Rye chapter of the NAACP. “Traffic flow during construction, noise, toxic materials, dust – we will monitor.”
The village is experiencing a boom in new construction. A new six-story building, called the Tarry Lighthouse, is going up on North Main Street a short walk from the Greenwich city line, and its development has raised widespread concerns about traffic connections in the Byram section of town on Mill Street. This new building on North Main will contain 209 rental units and commercial space.
